Siege of Deventer (1578)

Siege of Deventer (1578)
Part of Eighty Years' War
Contemporary map of the siege by Joannes van Doetecum, 1578
Date 3 August – 19 November 1578 Location Deventer, Overijssel, Habsburg Netherlands Result States-General victory
Belligerents
States-General	German garrison in royal service
Commanders and leaders
George van Lalaing, Count of Rennenberg Diederik Sonoy	Nicolaus Polweiler Augustyn van Rychenstein
Strength
Unknown	About 900 High German soldiers
Casualties and losses
Unknown	Unknown

The siege of Deventer was a siege of the city of Deventer in Overijssel during the Eighty Years' War. Troops of the States-General, under George van Lalaing, Count of Rennenberg, besieged Deventer from 3 August 1578. Rennenberg had overall command of the States forces, while Diederik Sonoy commanded the besieging troops. The city was defended by about 900 High German soldiers of the Polweiler regiment in royal service. The garrison's command structure included Nicolaus Polweiler, Augustyn van Rychenstein and the governor Havincourt. The city ultimately passed into States control after the garrison's surrender and evacuation.

The siege followed the capture of Kampen by the States forces and formed part of the campaign to eliminate royalist strongpoints in Overijssel. Deventer was strategically important because it was a garrison city and the IJssel could be crossed there relatively easily. The States-General sought to capture such positions north of the major rivers in order to protect Utrecht and Holland against raids, plundering and forced contributions.

A royalist garrison had been stationed in Deventer since 1568. The High German regiment commanded by Nicolaus Polweiler had been stationed there since 1572 and remained in royal service after the Spanish troops that had mutinied in the Netherlands left in March 1577.

The siege lasted 109 days. Its outcome was influenced not only by the military operations around the city but also by the deteriorating relationship between the garrison and the civilian population, the garrison's shortage of gunpowder, the weakening prospect of relief and the declining morale of the defenders. Petram concludes that external developments and the demoralization of the High German troops played a greater role in the outcome than the military strength of Rennenberg's besieging force.

Background

The Pacification of Ghent of 1576 temporarily brought many of the provinces of the Netherlands together against the policies of Philip II of Spain. The political settlement broke down after Don Juan of Austria captured Namur in July 1577. The States-General subsequently declared Don Juan an enemy and declared war on the royalist garrisons in the Netherlands. The garrison at Deventer became one of the targets of the campaign in Overijssel.

The States-General sought to capture royalist strongpoints north of the major rivers in order to protect Utrecht and Holland from raids, plundering and forced contributions. Deventer was particularly important because the IJssel could be crossed there relatively easily.

The garrison numbered about 900 High German soldiers and was commanded by Nicolaus Polweiler. The regiment had been stationed in Deventer since 1572. Augustyn van Rychenstein was its colonel. Petram also identifies Havincourt as governor of the city during the siege.

The Spanish troops that had mutinied during the financial crisis of the mid-1570s left the Netherlands in March 1577. The High German garrison at Deventer nevertheless remained in royal service.

Before the siege, the garrison's conduct had already caused hostility among the inhabitants. Contemporary and near-contemporary accounts describe violence, extortion and other abuses by the soldiers. In a letter written after the siege, Deventer inhabitants described the population as having been nearly desperate because of the conduct of the garrison.

Investment and siege operations

Rennenberg captured Kampen shortly before moving against Deventer. His troops then moved to Deventer, where the siege began on 3 August 1578.

Rennenberg had overall command of the States forces. Petram states that the besieging force was entrusted to Diederik Sonoy: Rennenberg and Jan van Nassau consulted Sonoy and entrusted him with command of the troops.

The States troops surrounded the city and occupied positions around it. The IJssel was obstructed by an armed vessel, although movement into and out of the city remained possible and was dangerous.

A contemporary map by Joannes van Doetecum depicts Deventer and the positions of the besieging army. The Rijksmuseum dates the map to 1578 and identifies it as a plan of the siege under Rennenberg covering 2 August to September 1578. It therefore documents the early phase of the siege rather than its entire duration.

Archaeological research has also investigated the expected location of an artillery schans associated with the siege. Historical research indicated that a schans from the Eighty Years' War had been located in this part of the IJssel floodplain and had been used during the 1578 siege. Archaeological trial-trenching, however, did not locate the schans. The researchers found musket balls and part of a stone cannonball, but could not establish that these remains derived from the 1578 siege; the expected schans therefore remains archaeologically unconfirmed.

The city defended itself particularly strongly from the Noordenberg tower, which became a principal target of the besiegers. On 24 August the besiegers opened the first breach in the city wall. On 1 September they burned the bridge over the IJssel, further restricting movement around the city.

The first recorded sortie by the garrison took place in October. The defenders attacked the besiegers' camp at night, killing a sentry, wounding States soldiers and taking food and weapons. The sortie disrupted the besiegers but did not break the siege.

After Sonoy was recalled to Holland, Rennenberg reinforced the besieging force, while Johan van den Kornput, an experienced military engineer, arrived with about 200 men from Breda and contributed to the continuation of the siege.

Conditions inside Deventer

The population suffered from the military demands imposed by the garrison. Two days after the States troops were first reported near the city, the magistrates, under pressure from the garrison officers, ordered people unable to work to leave. The order was repeated in September, but many poor inhabitants remained. The churchwardens of the Lebuïnus, Lieve Vrouwe and Berg churches and charitable institutions provided assistance to poor and other needy residents.

Civilians were also compelled to assist in the defense of the city. Petram records that women and children were sometimes forced to strengthen the fortifications with shovels and axes. Soldiers seized grain and other provisions from inhabitants and monasteries, sometimes allowing the owners to buy their property back.

In September the garrison attempted to compel the population to swear an oath promising not to obstruct the soldiers and to assist in strengthening the city's defenses. The inhabitants refused. According to testimony collected later, the refusal was expressed by the burgomaster Jan ter Beeck, who referred to the previous misconduct of the soldiers.

The garrison was sufficiently equipped to withstand the siege in general, but it suffered from a shortage of gunpowder. Petram emphasizes that the soldiers nevertheless failed to win the support of the Deventer population. The hostile relationship between the garrison and the inhabitants became an important factor in the eventual collapse of the defense.

The relationship deteriorated further after the death of Don Juan. In October the soldiers again took food from inhabitants, and the residents complained through the burgomasters to governor Havincourt. The soldiers were ordered to stop taking food, but the disorder continued.

The garrison also became involved in disputes with the city's magistrates and clergy. Testimony collected in 1584 placed particular emphasis on Augustyn Rychenstein, the colonel of the garrison. Witnesses described repeated conflicts between Rychenstein and the inhabitants, including demands for money and the use of soldiers to pressure the magistrates.

The contemporary and near-contemporary narratives are particularly important because several aspects of the siege are known through later testimony. The 1584 investigation into the surrender collected statements from five witnesses, four of them clergy who had left Deventer in 1580. Their testimony is valuable for reconstructing relations between the garrison and inhabitants, but it is retrospective and was collected under the royalist government in 1584.

The retrospective testimony does not support treating hunger as the decisive cause of the surrender. One witness stated that there was still sufficient food in the city a week before the capitulation. These statements came from a 1584 investigation and should therefore be treated as retrospective testimony rather than as independent contemporary measurements of the city's food stocks.

Emergency coinage

Deventer resorted to emergency coinage before the siege because funds were needed to pay the German garrison. The first emergency issue was struck in June 1578, before the siege began. It consisted of silver daalders, half-daalders and quarter-daalders valued at 44, 22 and 11 stuivers respectively, struck according to the weight and fineness of the rijksdaalder. The city initially used its own silverware and subsequently used silver taken from churches and monasteries. Numismatic research treats these silver pieces as the first emergency issue of Deventer, although they technically predated the siege.

During the siege, the garrison appropriated further ecclesiastical valuables. Petram identifies silver reliquaries associated with Lebuïnus, Radbodus and Margaret among the objects seized. The silver was melted down and used for further emergency coinage, including pieces bearing the inscription VRGEN · NECESS · DAVEN, an abbreviation of VRGENte NECESSitate DAVENtriae, meaning approximately "in the urgent necessity of Deventer".

Once the available silver had been exhausted, the city resorted to copper for its later emergency issues. The surviving copper coins are generally round. The obverse bears a crowned eagle within a pearl border, surrounded by the inscription VRGEN · NECESS · DAVEN and the date 30 OC (15)78. The reverse gives the denomination within a wreath and pearl border; surviving examples are known in denominations of 4, 2, 1 and one-half stuivers.

According to H.K. Berghuijs, as cited by Jover and Jover Navarro, the copper emergency coins were struck on two occasions, on 29 October and 12 November 1578, each time for a nominal value of 400 daalders. The two striking operations therefore represented a combined nominal value of 800 daalders. The coins nevertheless bear the date 30 OC (15)78. The distinction between the striking dates and the date appearing on the coins should therefore be retained rather than treating 30 October as the date of both striking operations.

Exact mintages cannot be established because official production records are lacking. Jover and Jover Navarro nevertheless estimate the quantities struck for each denomination from surviving specimens and historical records of coins recovered in the nineteenth century. Many of the copper pieces were subsequently handed back to the city and countermarked with the Deventer city arms as a sign that they had been withdrawn from circulation.

Failure of relief and collapse of the defense

The defenders continued to hope for assistance from royalist forces outside Deventer. That prospect had already weakened after forces associated with Don Juan were dispersed by troops commanded by Jan van Nassau.

Don Juan died on 1 October 1578. His death removed the garrison's remaining expectation that his forces would relieve Deventer. The news was followed by unrest within the city, declining morale among the soldiers and renewed seizure of food from inhabitants. The population complained to the governor, Havincourt.

About a week after Don Juan's death, the garrison sent a messenger to the States forces to request negotiations. The city nevertheless remained in royalist hands for several more weeks.

The failure of royalist relief efforts further weakened the defenders' position. Alexander Farnese, Duke of Parma, who succeeded Don Juan as governor-general, prepared to send troops to assist Deventer. A relief force under Hans Friedrich von Schoonauw attempted to approach the city but was defeated by a smaller States force under Jan Stuper near Bottrop on 20 October. Hooft reports that about 250 of Schoonauw's men were killed and the remainder scattered.

The defeat of the relief force removed the most immediate prospect of outside assistance. Parma subsequently approached with new troops, but he arrived too late to prevent the surrender.

The garrison's discipline continued to deteriorate. Soldiers took food from inhabitants and, as winter approached, began dismantling wood from houses. They also stole valuables from churches, including the silver reliquaries that were melted down for emergency coinage.

Petram's evidence from the 1584 investigation into the surrender places considerable emphasis on the relationship between the garrison and the population. The witnesses did not agree that the inhabitants had openly rebelled against the king. Some described them as loyal royal subjects, while others reported assistance to the besiegers or pressure from the population on the garrison. The evidence therefore indicates a hostile and fractured relationship rather than an organized civilian rebellion.

Petram concludes that external developments and the demoralization of the German troops played a greater role in the outcome than the military strength of Rennenberg's besieging force.

Capitulation and evacuation

The garrison's position became increasingly difficult after the failure of relief and the deterioration of morale. The States forces themselves suffered from shortages, and Petram notes that they were not necessarily capable of taking the city immediately by assault. The disappearance of the defenders' expectation of effective outside assistance nevertheless made continued resistance increasingly difficult.

The garrison first requested negotiations about a week after Don Juan's death. The capitulation was concluded on 19 November 1578, according to contemporary and later sources. Petram, however, dates the completed surrender and evacuation to 20 November. The German soldiers then left Deventer in closed formation with their matches burning. They swore not to serve against the States for three months and not to harm inhabitants or people along their route. Men from Rennenberg's forces escorted them as far as Bocholt.

The date 20 November is also recorded by a commemorative coin issued in connection with the capture of the city, whose inscription describes Deventer as liberated on that date.

A contemporary Hogenberg print represents the surrender and withdrawal of the German garrison under the date 19 November 1578. The Rijksmuseum likewise catalogues the print as a depiction of Deventer's surrender on that date. The evidence therefore supports 19 November as the date of the capitulation, while 20 November may refer to the completion of the evacuation described by Petram.

Aftermath

The capture of Deventer removed one of the principal royalist garrisons in Overijssel. Together with the capture of Kampen, it strengthened the States-General's position in the province and brought Deventer under States control.

The political change also had immediate religious consequences. Catholicism remained the officially established religion in Deventer while the city was under royalist control, although Protestant and reformist currents were already present. The transfer to States control brought Deventer into the wider religious and political developments of the Dutch Revolt.

In December 1578 Protestant representatives from Deventer travelled to the southern Netherlands to seek the introduction of the Religievrede (Religious Peace). They first approached William of Orange, who supported their request. Orange subsequently communicated with Archduke Matthias concerning the matter.

The Protestant petitioners claimed that a majority of Deventer's inhabitants preferred Protestantism. Petram rejects this as an accurate representation of the city's religious situation. The available evidence indicates that Deventer was religiously plural and does not establish a Protestant, and particularly not a Calvinist, majority in late 1578.

On 11 January 1579 the Religious Peace was proclaimed in Deventer. The Protestant community was given the Broederenkerk for worship, while the agreement prohibited it from taking other churches or engaging in iconoclasm. The different religious communities were required not to interfere with one another in order to preserve peace in the city.

The religious settlement lasted until the political and religious situation changed after Rennenberg's defection to the royalist side in March 1580. Public Catholic worship was subsequently prohibited in Deventer.

The capture of Deventer did not permanently secure the city for the States. Deventer returned to royalist control in January 1587 after the betrayal of the States commander Sir William Stanley. The States recaptured the city during the siege of 1591.

See also

• Siege of Deventer (1591)
• Eighty Years' War, 1576–1579
• Union of Utrecht